Abstract:
Despite the availability of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) preventive vaccine, HBV still remains a major health threat in Ghana as evidenced by data from the Ghana Health Service. Even though efforts have been made to reduce this health menace, the focus has been on awareness creation, need for policy, screening intentions and prevalence of the disease without considering the behavioural factors influencing the spread of the disease. This study sought to examine how the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a theory could be used to predict and understand HBV preventive behaviour in Ghana. The study further examines the moderating effect of place of residence on the HBM and HBV constructs. The quantitative approach was adopted for the study. A structured questionnaire was administered to 415 respondents in the Greater Accra Region (slums and non-slums) and the data was analysed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to explore the relationship between the HBM constructs and HBV preventive behaviour. The results show that perceived susceptibility, self-efficacy and perceived benefits are better predictors of HBV preventive behaviour in the Ghanaian context. However, perceived severity showed an insignificant relationship with HBV preventive behaviour. This study, thus, recommends that implementers of social marketing campaigns on HBV in Ghana should investigate why most Ghanaians have not adopted HBV preventive behaviours even though they are aware of the disease. They can do so by employing HBM to design interventions on HBV to highlight the mode of transmission of the disease and also lay emphasis on the fact that the disease is no respecter of persons since everyone has an equal chance of contracting it in order to change the behaviour of the people. The details of these findings are discussed in the work.
